A Bonding Experience
by HitsuIchi
Summary: InuYasha is forced to spend some quality time with Shippo and comes to an important realization about his, as well as Shippo's, life. Revised.


Disclaimer: Guess what?! I don't own InuYasha! Yay! laughs hysterically as people in suits drag her away

oOoOo

**Why Me?**

"Ahh! Kagome, help me!" Shippo yelled loudly as he ran past Kagome and sprinted around the campsite they had made up the night before.

It was early morning, the sun having risen above the mountains in the distance a few hours before.

"Get back here you little brat! Don't run away from me!" a very annoyed InuYasha ranted, tearing after the fox kit.

Said boy sped up even more when he turned his head and saw how angry the older half-demon really was.

"Ahh!" was his only reply; because, for the most part, he was too busy running to say anything else.

Miroku, Sango, and Kagome were a little confused as to why he was so mad until they saw him up close. When the monk and demon exterminator saw the new look Shippo had given InuYasha, they fell on the floor laughing.

Shippo, seeing a chance to escape, ran around the fire and bounded into Kagome's arms, who after seeing the reason for Inuyasha's anger, broke into an amused smile as well.

Shippo, it seems had caught InuYasha off guard––sleeping to be precise––and had taken the time to give him a rather fashionable new look. The young boy had taken some of Kagome's hair ties, and tied InuYasha'a hair into a couple messy pigtails. Then, he had proceeded to take some dandelions, make them into a necklace, and place them around the hanyou's neck. To top this all off, he had grabbed some more flowers and put them in his hair and on his haori, just, it seems, to make him look a little more cheerful.

He, however, didn't look very cheerful at the moment, and was angrily clawing at his long, silver hair instead, attempting to remove the flowers laced in between.

Kagome looked from the fuming InuYasha, to the pair rolling on the floor with tears of mirth in their eyes, to Shippo, who was trembling slightly in her arms and knew she had to say something.

"Uhh?" she faltered, a doubtful smile on her face, "It looks…nice?"

This was the last straw for InuYasha who lunged at Shippo, not thinking about the fact that Kagome was holding the boy or about what he would do if he managed to grab the kit. Kagome saw him leap in the air towards her and, startled, said the first thing that popped into her head.

"Sit!"

The raging hanyou paused in mid-jump, a look of surprise on his face, and fell to the ground with a sickening crunch. Subdued, he stayed in the crater he had made for himself long after Shippo had gone to play and Sango and Miroku had left to visit the village nearby to get some supplies.

When InuYasha finally had the energy and resolve to look up, he didn't like what he saw. Kagome looked mad. Not like a little pissed off, but really mad. The girl stood, glaring down at him, with her arms crossed and tapping her foot. He was rarely even a little scared of Kagome, except when she was really mad.

Like now.

'Shit,' he thought to himself, 'How am I gonna get out of this? I should have just hit the kid over the head without making such a scene, but the damn kid was sneaky.' He ran a clawed hand through his hair tiredly. 'Oh well, too late now.'

He prepared himself for the fireworks but they never came. He was surprised to see, the next time he looked up, that she had stopped shooting him evil looks. She looked like she had lost her steam. Kagome took a deep breath as if to calm herself fully, then started.

"InuYasha, why do you always try to hurt Shippo for every little thing he does? He's just a kid. He doesn't know any better."

The girl seemed a bit put out. InuYasha hated to see her that way. He was used to the happy, smiling Kagome.

"It doesn't matter how small he is. He has to learn sometime. If he goes on acting like that his whole life, without anyone telling him what he's doing wrong, how's he gonna learn?"

She sighed.

"It's alright if you want to teach him a lesson," she said sitting on a rock and motioning for him to sit down in front of her, "but try not to be so brutal." At this, she began to remove the hair ties and flowers from his hair, while waiting for him to respond. She could tell he was thinking hard. After a while he spoke up.

"Feh. Why do you care so much anyway? It's not as if he's your son."

"He may not really be mine, but I still love him as my own. And another thing… even if you haven't noticed, he looks up to you. No matter what you might think, he really cares about what you say."

The girl then went back to her earlier task, finished talking.

InuYasha answered by giving another lazy "Feh" but secretly thought it over in his head.

And as Kagome took the time to take out the remaining flowers from his hair, he wondered if what the girl had said was actually true.

oOoOo

The next morning arose as bright and sunny as the day before, though the local people said that this was just a hint of the violent storms that always followed. Though the group didn't really believe these stories to be true, they decided to rest for the day since no rumors of shikon shards had been heard. The group, excluding InuYasha, who after complaining and yelling for a while finally got on Kagome's nerves and ended up being sat, got together to figure out what to do.

"So, what are we gonna do today?" Kagome asked.

"How about a game?" the monk suggested.

"What kind of game?" Sango asked, a little warily, looking at Miroku out of the corner of her eye.

"Hmm…" he started contemplatively, "I was thinking something along the lines of strip poker. Wouldn't you agree, my dearest Sango?" he said, edging towards her. At this, he was promptly put in check by Sango… with an easy swing from her Hiraikotsu.

"No more suggestions from you monk," she said irritably, eye twitching, but Miroku was too out of it to notice.

Kagome shook her head in amused wonder then turned to the half-demon sitting cross-legged a little behind them, still sulking.

"How about you, InuYasha? Anything you want to do?"

"Well, I wanted to go look for shards," he stated, annoyance laced in his voice, "But you people thought it would be too much trouble, so now, all we have to do is sit here."

Kagome crossed her arms in a huff.

"We stopped because there _were_ no rumors, idiot, but okay. If you want to go out and hunt so much, you and Shippo can spend some quality time together getting our lunch." At this, Shippo's face lit up.

"Really?

"Yep." Kagome responded with a small smile.

"Yes!" exclaimed Shippo, yesterday's fight completely forgotten in light of the trip.

InuYasha, on the other hand, was almost left speechless with shock. "B-b-but I––," he started to complain, but stopped short when he saw Kagome glare and hint towards Shippo.

As soon as the young boy heard InuYasha start to complain, his ears and tail drooped and he ducked his head disappointedly. When InuYasha saw this, as well as the furtive look Kagome was shooting his way, he grudgingly, changed his mind and said, "––_we_ need more time than that."

Shippo instantly became his old self, and started bouncing around in excitement, imagining all the things they would do while they were out, not realizing, in all his excitement, the dangers that the forest was hiding.

"We'll be back later!" Shippo said, as he hurriedly ran ahead of the other boy. InuYasha followed Shippo for a few steps, then, when he was sure that the fox kit wasn't looking, he turned around.

'You owe me for this,' he mouthed at Kagome. The girl didn't respond though. She just waved them off and smiled.


End file.
